The Baird Report represents an important legal landmark for women generally, and women police especially … Without it women would likely have been driven out of the police altogether until the onset of World War II
Colin R Moore
The Committee on the Employment of Women on Police Duties (the ‘Baird Report’) recognised that women could be sworn in as constables in the police forces of England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as also acknowledging the valuable role that women police fulfilled when undertaking police work.
Its recommendations built on the success and usefulness of the various, sometimes competing, voluntary private women police services established during World War I. However, while the Baird Committee represents a qualified success; women police tended to fill specialist roles in specialist departments until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
Nevertheless, the Baird Committee was an important first step in facilitating the careers, and improving the prospects, of women entering the Police Service.
The full version of this landmark was is by Colin R Moore.
Learn More
Louise A Jackson, ‘The First World War and the First Female Police Officer’ (History of Government, 17 June 2014) https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/06/17/the-first-world-war-and-the-first-female-police-officer/